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KUALA LUMPUR, Mon: The final session of the 1st day of the Malaysian Law Conference kicked off slightly later than the rest as the previous session had overrun its set time but it was well worth the wait for those who had stayed on to hear the speakers of the final session.

Mr. Derek Fernandez was the first speaker for the evening and started off the session by explaining that after a long day most people who attended theses types of conferences would be a bit tired and hence he would dispense with the usual power point presentation that he had originally prepared in favour of a short DVD entitled “Twelve-11”.

The basis of the DVD was a first hand account of the family members of the victims of the Highland Towers tragedy of the 11th December 1993.

Many may not remember the horrors of the tragedy nor the impact of the landslide that caused 48 deaths and the collapse of Tower 1 of the Highland Towers but the video was a shocking reminder.

Mr. Fernandez went on in the video to say that what happened then could happen again if the local authorities did not have check and balances to ensure that such an unfortunate occurrence would never again occur.

He went on to say that most of these disasters are all man made and due to human error of which 95% of it could have been avoided if the proper planning and approvals were met and kept to.

He expressed his dissatisfaction with S.95 of the Street and Drainage Act which gives local authorities immunity from prosecution. The full effect of this could be seen in the 2006 judgement of the 10 year battle by the families of the victims of the Highland Tower tragedy.

In that case, the Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya was granted immunity and held not liable for any of the damages and claims made by the Plaintiffs. He went on to give the analogy that the local authority could compel one to tear a wall down but if the tearing of the wall caused damage or death the local council would be immune to any liability.

He was of the opinion that the local authorities officers should be held personally liable for all decisions and that if they were found to be in the wrong; that they should be sacked immediately.

He reminded the floor that local authorities elections have been suspended since 1965 and that in turn has caused the loss of accountability which inevitably led to the tragedy of the Highland Towers and many other disasters like it.

He went on to tell us that the Sabak Bernam local council recently filed their defence in a suit where they were sued after the recent floods. They stated that they were immune from prosecution by virtue of S.95 and even if they were negligent they were immune.

He rounded up his talk by stating that the lessons were never learnt and that without accountability local councils will never learn and that the touching video he showed us is a terrible reminder of this. He stated that the issue is whether the oaths the local council swore to perform were in fact performed and whether the local councilors had integrity. He defined integrity as doing the right thing even if there is no one looking. He then ended his talk by proposing several criteria for the appointments of councilors.

The next speaker was the evergreen Dato’ P.G. Lim, a speaker of much experience. Dato’ started by giving the floor a brief history and overview of the local government and how it has evolved over the years.

The local government appears to have its earliest beginnings in Penang where as early as 1801 a committee of Assessors was established “to lay out the town in a manner most suitable to the requirements of the inhabitants” This first committee was an elected committee.

She stated that the problem was that there were no elected local government as they were all nominated which tended to promote lone interests. She called for the need to have elected local governments so that a proper forming of local governments. She stated that she was proud that in 1956 the first municipality to have a fully elected council was her hometown of Penang.

She went on to state that the first and last Local Authority General Elections was held in 1963 which went ahead smoothly and efficiently but was unfortunately suspended when the “Konfrontasi” between Malaysia and Indonesia was declared which resulted in the declaration of a State of Emergency on the 3rd of September 1964.

She then went on to give a brief account on the Royal Commission of Enquiry on Local Authorities which was chaired by Senator Athi Nahappan which was appointed with the following terms of reference:

a) to enquire into and consider whether the continued existence of any category or categories of local authorities, particularly those of local authorities in which the capital of a state is situate, serve any useful purpose;
b) to report on the following matters and to make such recommendations, as in their opinion the circumstances require, taking into consideration the adequacy or otherwise of the existing laws with regard to local authorities…

The commission completed its work 3 years later and concluded inter alia that every state should have a local authority and that each local authority should have elective representation.

However the Minister for Local Government and Housing submitted a report that supported the Local Government Act as proposed by the commission as well as agreeing with the view of elective representation.

However 2 of the seven members had dissenting views and submitted their “independent rather than a minority report” which although agreed to a Local Government Act, they disagreed that all local government units should function on the basis of party politics “at present time” which really meant that they were against the elected representation at local councils. This view was unfortunately adopted by the government.

She went on to give example of Datuk M. Kayveas causing a furore when he called local authorities “secret societies” because of the lack of transparency and accountability. She added that this disease is not only found at local government levels but has also reached national levels as well.

She then called for the reintroduction of the local government elections and ended her speech with a quote from the Athi Nahappan report, “ Local government … is the kindergarten of democracy. It is the government that is the nearest to the people. Grassroot democracy is cultivated here. If democracy is understood by the people at this level and if they participate in its exercise they will understand it better at the state and central levels…”

“In a country like Malaysia a suitably restructured local government identified with democracy, can serve not merely local interests but also reinforce and consolidate national unity, besides sustaining and preserving a democratic institution at local level.”

She ended her session by stating that, “there should be no taxation without representation” and called for the reintroduction of elected local governments.

The third speaker for the session was the well known R. Nadeswaran or more commonly known as Citizen Nades who decided to focus his talk on one subject and one person alone. His power point presentation was entitled, “The Palace that Zakaria Built” and the person in focus was none other than the infamous YB Zakaria Bin Mat Deros. He hastened to add that it was not a personal attack on the man who was a law unto himself.

He ran through various articles of the misdeeds of the who he calls the “most prolific law breaker” as well as several other local councilors who had flouted the law as well.

He went on to show that the Prime Minister had called the actions of these wayward councilors, “unacceptable” and that even the Deputy Prime Minister had stated that, “the UMNO is not happy with what is happening”.

He then informed the floor that due to his investigative reports which had exposed these misdeeds by the local state councilors, he has been in turn been labeled a racist and “anak keling” and has even been blamed and labeled as a tool of the opposition party to sabotage the current government.

He went on to add that despite his misgivings of these few councilors he was sure that the local governments contained men and women who are willing to work hard and are transparent but he blames the “surat sokongan” which various elected officials always sends in supporting various applications which most of the time are illegal which prevents the local council from doing their job.

The final speaker of the evening was Mr. Ng Seing Liong the President of the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (REHDA)

He started off by quoting Section 10(2) of the Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171) which defined the guidelines for the appointments for local councilors.

He highlighted the fact that this section requires that the person should be ordinarily resident in the local authority areas who has wide experience in local government affairs or one who has achieved distinction in any profession, commerce or industry or are otherwise capable of representing the interests in the local authority areas.

He then went on to describe the role of the local authorities in the Housing Industry. He states that generally the local authorities are responsible for public health and sanitation i.e. the provision and maintenance of public places and amenities, waste and rubbish disposal, environment protection, town planning and building control, social and economic development and maintenance of all infrastructures within the local authority areas.

He then confined his talk on the aspects which were directly relevant to housing only;, which he puts as the enforcement and implementation of town planning and land use, building control and the provision of corresponding infrastructural support of such development.

He then delved a little on the achievements of the local authorities to date and stated that they have so far performed reasonably well but that there are nevertheless areas that warrant attention to promote a more effective, efficient and complimentary role of the local authorities towards the housing industry.

He continued by giving several proposals for further improvement of local councils with regard to the housing industry such as a rating system for local authorities as per the announcement by the Deputy Prime Minister of rating from one star to five star to promote improved performance and efficient delivery system by the corresponding local authorities. This he said was a good move forward. He adds that this must be complimented by the commitment of the state governments to nominate and accept councilors of suitable caliber only and cease the current practice of appointing councilors as political hand-outs.

He continued to say that the approval process must be expedited and has lauded the governments efforts in trying to improve the delivery system.

He also called for the equitable implementation of all laws, regulations and guidelines pertaining to housing. He asked for the repeal of MASMA and also that the imposition of capital contributions, development charge and social contributions must be fair and equitable especially so when these costs are eventually borne by the homebuyers.

He also called for the local authorities to draw up and gazette corresponding local plans to provide a transparent blueprint for development in line with the nations’ “National Urbanisation Policy”.

He states that the local authorities should only enforce the minimum standards as provided in all legislations and guidelines and not enforce the optimum standards on a discretionary basis. Fine tuning of lay-out and building design should be left to the discretion of developers based on target groups that houses are intended for sale so long as there is full compliance to safety and health rules.

He rounded up his talk by saying that houses should remain affordable to all Malaysians and that the local authorities should do their utmost to allow higher densities of development..

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